The Mercenary takes a wife: Bet

Chapter One

He looked at his cards again and then pushed the rest of his money into the pile. “Raise ya 50.” He casually looked around; checking that the meeting the Captain was having was still going good and then looked back at the stranger he was playing cards with. He noticed that the man didn’t have enough to cover the raise and reached over to collect his pot.

“Wait a minute.” The stranger reached into his jacket.

Jayne brought his gun up onto the table.

“Just wanted to put this in to the pot.” He tossed a piece of paper onto the table.

Jayne looked at it and then at the man. “What the hell is that?”

The man turned and waved over a young woman. “Those are her papers, got 6 months left on them. That ought to be worth 50.” Man smiled at the crowd of men that were vying to get closer to the girl.

The girl looked at Connor, the man that had owned her for the last three years and then over at the man who might own her for the next 6 months. At the realization of what Connor had said sunk in, the man didn’t have the look that she was used to seeing. The leering look and the smug smile at what they would do with her, this man just looked angry.

“Her papers? She a slave or something?” Jayne had his hand on his gun, but was fighting the urge to use it.

“An indentured servant, I won her a few years ago and she is a fine worker. She can sew, cook, clean and….. other things.” He smiled knowingly at Jayne.

“Yeah, well I don’t want her, so she ain’t worth 50.” He reached again for the pot.

“Wait, I’m sure I can get 50 credits for her from someone.” He looked around, he wasn’t used to men not accepting the paper. He saw Brook and waved him over. “You look like you could use a good worker, you willing to give me 50 for her?” The offer was causing a ruckus and the man Mal was dealing with gave them a nervous look. The look Mal gave Jayne was much more murderous, as backup Jayne was supposed to be keeping a low profile.

“Fine, fine, go ahead and play it.” Jayne saw Mal sh